Aiming to highlight the arts and bring culture visitors to more neighborhoods like East Boston, ArtsBoston launches ArtFinder
Supported by a Grant From the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, ArtsBoston ArtsFinder Will Reach Visitors from Throughout New England
BOSTON – July 19, 2022 – Spurred by a desire to spotlight the performing and visual arts in Boston neighborhoods, and encourage visitors to think beyond the city’s traditional arts anchors, the marketing, advocacy and audience development group ArtsBoston is launching ArtsFinder this month. The culturally rich neighborhoods of Allston/Brighton, Roxbury and East Boston are the first areas to be highlighted by the new section of the ArtsBoston Calendar, accessible here, and rolled out to New England travelers this fall.
ArtsFinder features short cultural histories of each neighborhood, public art and links to museums, theaters, concert halls and other venues where music, dance, theater and other performances happen. The ArtsFinder pages include an arts calendar with events coming up in each area.
The goal, says ArtsBoston Executive Director Catherine Peterson, is to give Boston visitors (and residents) an easy way to discover diverse cultural activities not often seen in the mainstream when they are planning a trip here, or looking for “a new hometown arts adventure.”
“ArtsFinder is an outgrowth of our vision to highlight the full picture of what’s happening on the Boston arts scene,” Peterson says. “We are building ArtsBoston ArtsFinder to bring visitors to parts of the city’s cultural scene they may not have explored yet.”
East Boston’s Veronica Robles Cultural Center, which supports Latin American arts and cultural programming, is among the organizations included in ArtsFinder. Co-Founder and Director Veronica Robles says, “Eastie is an incredibly diverse community, with so many grassroots organizations creating a culture of collaboration around the arts to tackle social problems. Greater visibility shines a light on the dynamic Eastie arts community and can foster relationships and commissioned work with other important Boston institutions.”
With seed funding from the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism to develop the online infrastructure and connect with cultural facilities and arts groups over the past three months, Peterson says her team is “soft launching” the neighborhood websites now in an effort to bring awareness about the project to additional cultural entities and leaders in Allston/Brighton, East Boston and Roxbury.
“There’s so much astonishing work happening in Boston’s vibrant neighborhoods, it’s hard to wrap one’s arms around all of it,” Peterson says, “so we’ll spend the coming months telling more people about the initiative and growing the content on the site.”
Peterson says the website will get broader promotion throughout Massachusetts later this summer and a full, New England-wide push this fall.
ArtsBoston is adding cultural spaces and organizations with public programming to the ArtsFinder website on a rolling basis. Posting arts events on the ArtsBoston Calendar is free and events located in these neighborhoods once approved will populate to ArtsFinder neighborhood pages. A brief video tutorial of how to submit an event can be found here. Organizations or venues that want to be considered may reach ArtsBoston Program Coordinator Nate Shu at nates@artsboston.org.
